National Association for Music Education. (2014). 2014 Standards. Retrieved from https://nafme.org/my-classroom/standards/core-music-standards/
The new national standards are structured as an update, modernization, and fill-in of the older standards from 1994. Standards are organized by setting, and then by standard. There are different standards documents and descriptions for General Music, Composition and Theory, Music Technology, Harmonizing Instruments, and Ensemble. Within each of these categories, subsets of each of the national standards (creating, performing, responding, and connecting) are described for each grade level (for K-8 general music) or relative ability level (all other categories) in the context of what students can do. All applicable grade levels/ability levels are present on the page for each standard. The intent is to make it easy to see and prioritize the process in the standards rather than exclusively the product.
While creating universal standards for music, especially with the level of variation present in music education across different areas, is difficult, the national standards provide a sound foundation and broad concepts on which to build my curriculum. Beyond that, standards will lend credibility to my teaching among administrators and parents when my curriculum is based in the state and national Music Education standards. The language of the standards can also help build objectives for individual lesson plans, and for more specific elements within the lesson plan. The standards are there for the teacher's reference - to help gauge students' progress, to help create and explain objectives, and to build and demonstrate sound curriculum. Since adoption of the standards is voluntary, it's important that teachers adapt the standards to meet their teaching situation and the level of their students in order to use them as as effective a tool as possible.
Questions for the writers of the standards:
What was the spread/deviations of different school environments did the teachers come from who built the standards for NAfME? (Urban, Suburban, Rural? Elem., Middle, High, Postsecondary? Which states?)
In what ways are the old standards still useful, or do the new standards reflect that themselves?